jdowning
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Oud Courses - Single or Double?
Oud (and lute) strings were originally made from plain animal gut necessitating a construction that provided the necessary flexibility of the thicker
bass strings to sound well and required double string courses to provide reasonable volume of sound (except perhaps for the top treble course that was
often single on a lute).
To over come the inherent dullness in sound of lute gut basses, the double courses were octave tuned - that is with a thin gut string added tuned an
octave higher than the thicker bass string - so providing higher harmonics to the sound.
Another solution for the lute was to add longer bass strings (tied to a second peg box on an extended neck) - the longer string being free to vibrate
and produce a louder more satisfactory sustained sound. As string technology developed, by the 17th C it was possible to dispense with double courses
for the extended bass strings that were often replaced with single strings and even to later use only single courses for the stopped strings on the
larger lutes.
Metal wound basses were first generally adopted during the 19th C and allowed much 'improved' performance of the basses of ouds (lutes by then were
obsolete) with greater sustain and sound volume for string lengths of 58.5 cm to say 63.5 cm. Good quality thin gut strings sounded well at these
string lengths so continued in use until about 1960 when plastic nylon strings became generally available (inferior in sound to gut but a lot less
expensive).
Now we have PVA plastic strings that - being thinner and more dense than nylon - sound much brighter with better sustain than nylon and so have
gained in popularity.
So the question is - is it now necessary to use double courses on an oud rather than just single throughout - double courses being a tradition dating
back to the early days of plain gut strings? The guitar once fitted with double courses during the 16th to 17th C were later fitted with single
strings as the guitar moved into 19th C up to the present day (except for the steel strung '12 string' instrument). Why not the oud? Has anyone tried
it for comparison?
Another question - is there any record of early ouds being fitted with octave strung basses like the lutes of the early 16th C that were played
'finger style' with soft fingertips - or did the use of a risha or quill provide sufficient higher overtones to brighten up the sound of the plain gut
basses (note that some ouds by the 16th C were fitted with seven courses)?
Interesting that the switch to single courses throughout is now being practiced by some players of the larger sized lutes (such as archlutes and
theorbos) their instruments being close copies of surviving lutes that were originally fitted with double strung courses. For the longer stopped
string lengths single courses may be closer spaced than double courses and has the advantage of making the left hand stretches easier for those
lutenists with smaller hands.
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Jody Stecher
Oud Junkie
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I have tried single courses on oud and other normally double strung instruments. There was not enough sound produced to play even solo music. The
normally robust instrument sounded weak and defeated or ill. However this was when using the gauge string that usually has a mate and is therefore
lighter than a deliberately single course could be. The one exception is the steel strung banjo-mandolin, which is plenty loud (and much clearer)
using single courses of the usual metal gauges.
As for octave stringing on the oud, I tried it long ago on a long lost Cairo oud. This was over 30 years ago so I don't remember if I tuned the
treble courses in octaves. Probably it would have been hard to find nylon strings of a thin enough gauge so I probably tuned the trebles in unison. I
do remember that the oud sounded good this way but that eventually the sound became tedious for me. I discovered that there was such a thing as Too
Many Octaves.
Also, some time ago, H Aram Gulezyan recorded a few pieces on some Lyrachord LPs on an instrument he called Sultania. It sounded like a steel strung
lavta and at least one course was tuned in octaves.
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jdowning
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Thanks Jody
Your observation about the possibility o stringing an instrument at higher tension with single strings is a good point. This, of course, is what
happened to the classical guitar when stringing changed from double to the single courses of the present day. This in turn required use of fingernails
rather than fingertips in order to extract any volume from the higher tension strings. I play lute with fingertips and can no longer play my classical
guitars to produce a satisfactory volume as a consequence.
Historically the consensus seems to be that lutes were generally fitted with double courses played with fingertips whereas the larger archlutes or
theorbos (chitarrone) were played with nails to produce a louder volume of sound (necessary when performing in consort with other loud instruments).
Italian lutenist and composer of the early 17th C Alessandro Piccinini - who claimed to have invented the archlute and chitarrone - advocated playing
the instruments with nails rather than fingertips. An interesting possibility, as a consequence, is that he might also have been playing these lutes
fitted only with single courses?
Interesting that recordings of the octave strung Sultania survive. However, by 'record' I meant historical record of any early writings that refer to
use of octave stringing.
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Jody Stecher
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Quote: Originally posted by jdowning  |
Interesting that recordings of the octave strung Sultania survive. However, by 'record' I meant historical record of any early writings that refer to
use of octave stringing.
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Yes, I knew what you meant by "record". But a sound recording is itself a historical record, even if the history is recent.
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rootsguitar
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Mixing double & single courses. Also blank courses:
The wide neck of the 8c lute I've been playing has been interesting to experiment with. Using strings of all the same thickness and not tuning to
octaves has led to some variations that probably existed before.
I found that as a player I like having different sound options given by a single string in a group of doubled strings.
Also leaving a gap in the center of the tuning ( two blank strings) led to organizing two separate tuning groups on one neck.
The two string-groups can be played separately in different parts of a composition.
Getting my fingers to " jump" this gap has also led to some interesting plucking hand moves too as my hand does rolls and looks for ways to combine
the two groups by using a wider right hand stretch..
Transferring these ideas to guitars has been interesting too and I find myself doing right hand rolls that skip over a string, creating a specific
tempo variation.
The variations are interesting to me as I enjoy considering what improvised strings and resulting music existed as people with lute like instruments
travelled far from their own cultures during overland and maritime journeys.
[file]30393[/file]
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DoggerelPundit
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It seems clear that the question of innovation vs tradition turns both on what instrument innovations became possible with improvements in materials,
and what innovations became necessary with the evolution of the music in question.
I think the retention of "traditions" in certain instruments, e.g. paired strings, has more to do with their continued usefulness than anything else.
As Jody implied, the oud still uses pairs because otherwise, "The normally robust instrument sounded weak and defeated or ill." As with the
modern mandolin, bouzoukee, lauto, cittern, etc., you just won't get a robust and "ringing" sound without the strings being paired in some way.
Further, the richness and power of the piano were not possible until a hammer mechanism replaced the single quill of the harpsichord, and could strike
multiple strings.
As a part of continued usefullness, I would add what I would call "surity of strike" involving picked instruments. It is certainly easier for a pick
to strike across and release a pair of strings rather than a single string, especially with bi-directional picking. With doubled strings, tonal
power, speed, and accuracy are enhanced. Consider the kanun, with its mostly tripled strings.
As for octave stringing on the oud, listen to this clip of Husseini Taqsim on John Bilezikjian's Armenian Connection CD. He used what he calls a
"double strung" oud.
http://www.dantzrecords.com/music/dr_cd71001_5.mp3
Stephen
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rootsguitar
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Objectivity with ears to the past:
It has occurred to me that acknowledging the cultural subjectivity in what sounds, tastes, looks good also applies to musical expression and its
study.
If a culture’s strings were less resonant for a significant time, the resulting rhythmic advances, like in some specific music from the African
continent, become tightly woven into the region’s definition of “ this is music.”
Even as industrialized nations manufacture musical materials, the economic stratification of people thwarts a homogenized version of musical
advance.
An example of this is the early American roots music that sprang from harsh realities like slavery, poverty, and what creative expression may spring
from the oppressed human spirit finding solace in a portable stringed instrument.
Sometimes on improvised instruments created from memories.
In another sense I understand the above references to musical evolution and solutions to creating beautiful sounds that began as innovations and stuck
around to become tradition.
--T.Robb
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mavrothis
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Hi,
Both Udi Hrant and Udi Yorgos Bacanos used octave tunings. You can hear a few overt taksims by Hrant using octave tuning, while with Bacanos it is
more subtle, where it sounds like a few of the wound courses were in octaves.
I think single courses (other than very low notes) takes away from the oud sound we are used to. Having heard and played fretless guitars, I think it
is clear that the tone is quite different. Not that this is either bad or good, but I would consider it a different instrument.
Thanks,
mavrothi
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jdowning
Oud Junkie
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Interesting.
I should note that octave tuning of the lute applied to the basses i.e. the fourth course and lower.
One technique used by some Italian lutenists during the first half of the 16th C was to partially stop a course i.e. only one string of the pair was
stopped on the fingerboard the other being allowed to sound 'open'. If I recall correctly this applied only to the unison tuned treble courses (I will
check this out and report back)
Is this a technique that is or was ever used on the oud or related instruments of the Middle Eastern regions?
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Jody Stecher
Oud Junkie
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| Quote: Originally posted by jdowning | Interesting.
If I recall correctly this applied only to the unison tuned treble courses (I will check this out and report back)
Is this a technique that is or was ever used on the oud or related instruments of the Middle Eastern regions? |
I don't know if it has been done in the middle east, though it surely must have, but American mandolinist Jesse McReynolds does this often. He stops
one member of a metal double course with a fingernail because the finger pad is too wide to get between the two strings, I had the joy of sitting with
him a few years ago as he demonstrated the effect of his recently applied artificial nails. He no longer gets ripped nails and can now split all four
courses at once, allowing him to play chords of eight notes on his four course mandolin. It was such an inspiration to observe a musician in his
early 80s still trying new things and continuing to develop his music.
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jdowning
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Here is an example of use of a split course from an early 16th C manuscript of lute tablature (the so called Capirola Lute book).
This is Italian tablature notation - the horizontal lines represent the six courses of the lute - treble at the bottom bass at the top - with the fret
positions represented by number 0 = open string, 1 = first fret, 2 = second fret, 3 = third fret and so on. The coloured 'flags' above the lines
represent the time that a note is to be held - pretty much the same as in modern staff notation.
In this example (where indicated by the arrows) on the treble third course one string of the unison pair is continuously stopped at the third fret,
the second string of the pair being alternately sounded open (fret 0) and stopped at the first fret (fret 1).
Is there not a Turkish style of playing where the finger nails are used to stop the strings rather than just the finger tips? This might easily lead
to a 'splitting of the courses' style of playing?
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jdowning
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In the early days of the resurrection of the lute (1970's) there was much debate about use of fingernails rather than soft fingertips for plucking the
strings - most budding lute players having started with the classical guitar then used fingernails. The 'purists' insisted that playing with the
fingertips was the authentic way to go and so many went to great pains to relearn the technique of using only soft fingertips. Historical record
however does not exclude use of fingernails - some lutenists of the 17th C recommending use of nails others preferring only fingertips. The very large
lutes (Theorbos or Chittaroni - stopped string lengths of 100 cm or more) were often fitted with single (rather than double) courses to facilitate
execution of the greater left hand stretches required. These players might also use fingernails to produce a stronger sound from the instrument
especially when played in concert with other instruments.
Exponents of finger tip playing say that the sound produced is more colourful and that nails produce a hard metallic sound - but does it really make
much difference? The quality of sound produced by nails (like the risha of the oud) depends upon the material of the nail - soft or hard and brittle -
as well as the way it is shaped not to mention the technique used. The same applies to fingertips that might be soft or hard so affecting sound
quality. It also,of course, much also depends upon the strings used and the 'goodness' or otherwise of the lute.
As one modern professional lutenist (Hopkinson Smith) is quoted as saying "I prefer a beautiful sound with nails than a bad one with fingertips".
Guitarist José Miguel Moreno is surely correct when he says " In fact you can play with or without nails, what is important is playing from the
heart"
For comparison here are links to two fine performances on large theorbos fitted with single courses throughout one by Jakob Lindberg who I believe is
playing with fingertips (at least he does when playing smaller sized lutes) and the second by the duo Evangelina Mascardi and Monica Pustilnik both
playing with fingernails. Monica is playing a tiorbino - a small sized version of the tiorba tuned an octave higher. (check out the duet at point 8:20
on the recording). The compositions are by Bellerofonte Castaldi (1581 - 1649)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk2-Znp909U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WTzpJoaYYU
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jdowning
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What I find surprising is the number of professional female lutenists who can play the repertoire of these very large lutes. I have enough problems
attempting some of the more advanced left hand stretches on a lute with a 60 cm string length let alone one with a string length in excess of 100 mm.
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luan
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When a string brokes and I continue playing without it, I hate it. Technically and the sound of it too. It becomes harder to play, the volume gets
lowers, the characteristic tone is lost, etc.
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jdowning
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Just removing one string of each of the string pairs is unlikely to work satisfactorily as both string spacing and sound volume will be affected. An
instrument must be set up for single string courses implying closer string spacing as well as possibly larger diameter/higher tension stringing etc.
No doubt however - as mavrothis observes - the the sound will be different as a consequence.
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rootsguitar
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Enjoyed those clips with the Theorbos
I'm in the process of adding wound strings to my lute tuning project again and have found that the larger strings ( like the "A" and "D" from a set of
classical guitar strings ) resonate in a refreshing way alone.
These two single strings become the bass for the thumb on this wide necked lute.
There are still double courses too and one wound string paired with a copolymer string ( not tuned to octave).
more music with this set up soon.
Strings tuned mostly C#,F# with the textures provided by the string variations as opposed to a variety of pitches.
[file]30660[/file]
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